Morocco, Spain and Portugal will host the 2030 World Cup, a major sporting event that will attract global interest.
The three host countries have been working for months on the organisational details of the World Cup and are working hard to meet all the requirements set out by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the highest governing body of world football.
جلالة الملك يترأس مجلسا وزاريا، تناول تقدم استعدادات المغرب لاحتضان كأس العالم 2030
HM King Mohammed VI chaired a Ministerial Council today, focusing on Morocco’s preparations for its bid to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup pic.twitter.com/f3C0G6A9SA
In the case of Morocco, the Moroccan state is already outlining all the details in order to have everything ready for the summer of 2030.
King Mohammed VI is keeping a close eye on how these preparations are progressing and has chaired a Council of Ministers in Rabat to review organisational matters concerning the North African country.
The Royal Palace issued an official statement to emphasise that the Alawi monarch presided over the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, 4 December, devoted mainly to the most relevant issues concerning Morocco in terms of the preparation of the 2030 World Cup.
According to the official note, at the beginning of the Council session, Fouzi Lekjaa, Minister Delegate in charge of the Budget and President of the 2030 World Cup Committee, made a presentation to King Mohammed VI ‘on the progress of the Kingdom’s preparations for the organisation of this international sporting event’.
The minister took stock of the various steps already taken by the Moroccan bid to host the World Cup, from the announcement made by King Mohammed VI on 14 March 2023 in Kigali, Rwanda, on the presentation of the joint bid with Spain and Portugal to host the 2030 World Cup; and the announcement by the Moroccan monarch on 4 October 2023 that FIFA had unanimously decided to adopt the proposal by Morocco, Spain and Portugal as a single bid, and the subsequent exceptional mobilisation ‘in order to prepare a nomination dossier that meets FIFA’s own conditions and requirements’.
As noted by the Royal Palace, ‘the minister added that this tripartite nomination, which was submitted to FIFA on 29 July 2024, was the result of an unprecedented strong mobilisation of the working teams that were created for this purpose, especially at the level of ministerial sectors, public institutions, companies, territorial groups and local authorities concerned’.
The evaluation report of the bid nomination dossier, recently published by FIFA on 29 November 2024, gives the bid an exceptional score that far exceeds the conditions required for the award of the tripartite organisation of the 2030 World Cup in view of the next extraordinary session of the FIFA Council, which will take place in May 2025 and at which the appointment of the host federations for the 2030 World Cup will be voted on.
As for the challenge of organising the World Cup, Fouzi Lekjaa said that, in compliance with the royal instructions, ‘a committee will be set up with an enlarged composition including, in particular, representatives of civil society, Moroccans living abroad and African spheres’.
According to the official communiqué, it will also increase the level of mobilisation in coordination with all stakeholders, to accelerate the implementation of all strategic and structural departments related to the organisation of this international event, especially regarding the rehabilitation of stadiums, expansion and renovation of airports in the six host cities, strengthening road infrastructure and intensifying its networks within the cities, launching an integrated territorial rehabilitation programme extending beyond the host cities of World Cup matches, developing hotel and commercial infrastructure, strengthening and modernising health services, developing and modernising communication networks, and launching an expanded training programme to strengthen the skills of young people.
Morocco is working hard on the organisation of the World Cup with efforts in important areas such as the construction and modernisation of national stadiums, with the jewel in the crown being the Hassan II stadium in Casablanca, which will have a capacity for 115,000 spectators. A stadium that will be available by the end of 2028, with a view to hosting the 2029 Club World Cup to be organised by the North African country, and subsequently the main Moroccan venue for the 2030 World Cup, which is even bidding to host the World Cup final.
Other stadiums are well on the way to being remodelled and built, until the infrastructures of the six Moroccan World Cup venues – Casablanca, Marrakech, Tangier, Rabat, Agadir and Fez – are fully completed. Meanwhile, Spain will have eleven venues and Portugal will have three.
Connections are also very important for hosting an event on the scale of the World Cup, and Morocco is working hard to exponentially improve the capacity of its airports in order to welcome a large number of visitors to the country. Morocco has multiplied its air connections with various international destinations in recent years and this has been reflected in the number of travellers, with record numbers of tourists arriving recently, and the plan is to double the air infrastructure by 2035, according to the Moroccan government’s plan. The plan is driven by the organisation of the 2030 football World Cup, which will require the Moroccan kingdom to absorb a significant number of visitors. National road and transport infrastructures will also be boosted to facilitate the movement of a significant number of people in preparation for this important event.
With regard to this absorption of visitors, there will be a significant investment to increase the hotel and commercial offer in order to further increase the capacity of the Moroccan kingdom, which has very important and attractive enclaves such as the cities of Marrakech, Tangier, Rabat, Casablanca, Agadir and Fez.
In closing his speech to the Council of Ministers, the President of the 2030 World Cup Committee stressed that the 2030 World Cup will not only be a sporting competition, but will also constitute ‘a unique opportunity to strengthen the growth dynamism of the national economy in the coming years, create more job opportunities, improve the country’s tourist attractiveness, and promote the universal values of peace, unity and sustainable development’.
The Council of Ministers also ratified six international agreements, ‘including four bilateral and two multilateral, aimed at consolidating the partnership and cooperation relations that bring Morocco closer to several brotherly and friendly countries, and at strengthening its position at the continental and international level’.
The bilateral agreements serve to enhance cooperation with allied nations. The latest ones announced concern European countries and relate to the mutual recognition of driving licences and areas of criminal cooperation and improving efficiency in the fight against cross-border crime, as well as military and technical cooperation, according to the official note from the Royal Palace.
As for the two multilateral agreements, they concern crimes and certain acts committed on board aircraft, and the founding charter of the Digital Cooperation Organisation.
Furthermore, in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 49 of the Constitution, and at the proposal of Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, and on the initiative of the Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, King Mohammed VI has appointed Zuhair Sharafi as chairman of the National Electricity Regulatory Authority.
According to the official note from the Royal Palace, King Mohammed VI ‘issued his royal directives to undertake a profound reform of this Authority, transforming it into a National Regulatory Authority for the Energy Sector, revising the legislation related to it and expanding its powers to include all components of the energy sector, to include, in addition to electricity, natural gas and new energies, such as hydrogen and its derivatives, as well as the areas of production, storage, transport and distribution, in line with the level of maturity of the national energy sector, in accordance with international best practices in the field’.
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